Former News of the World editor and News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks. Photo: AP

The so-called media trial of the century has been a legal marathon, its eight months making it one of Britain's longest-ever criminal trials, stretching well past the original estimated finish date of Easter.

There is more than just the fate of the seven accused at stake. This is the show trial for phone hacking, the trailblazer for possible future trials, the moment when Fleet Street's tabloid culture is either brought to heel, or let off the leash. The verdict will reverberate from the heart of 10 Downing Street to the top News Corp executive suites on New York's Avenue of the Americas.

Former News of the World editor and Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson. Photo: Getty Images

But in a marathon, even when you enter the stadium with the finish line in sight, that run down the home straight to the tape can be an agonising ordeal.

At the end of his five-day summing up of the case this week, Judge Saunders provided the 11-member jury with a handy electronic index of the evidence. It ran to 304 pages, and was designed as a guide to 30 folders of documents, emails and phone records.

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''No pressure,'' he told the jury. ''Take the time you need.''

At the time of writing, they were still pondering their verdicts. It could take them a month.

Three former senior News International executives are enduring this nervous wait: Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and Stuart Kuttner. Joining them in the dock were News of the World's former royal reporter Clive Goodman, Brooks' personal assistant Cheryl Carter, her husband Charlie Brooks and News International security boss Mark Hanna.

They are charged variously with conspiracies to hack phones, misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice. They deny all charges.

Judge Saunders warned the jury not to be influenced by envy. ''These people have had a lifestyle most of us could never dream of,'' he said. ''Everyone in this country gets the same fair trial as everyone else.''

But few trials have the star power of this one. The court has heard of royals, politicians and celebrities. They have had an insight into the mundanities of newspaper editing, the ins and outs of voicemail technology, and the private lives of the rich and famous. They have even learnt about the Brooks' personal pornography collection.

The star of the prosecution case was "supergrass" Dan Evans, New of the World's forward features writer, who claimed that when it came to phone hacking ''even the office cat knew''. He admitted to more than 1000 phone hacks in a year, including Jude Law and Sienna Miller.

The defence painted him as a discredited witness ''lying through his teeth'', who tried to cut an immunity deal with prosecutors and was still hoping to get his sentence reduced by providing evidence against the others.

Another deep well of evidence were the 5600 notes recovered by police at the home of convicted phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire, of which 2200 had the name of a News of the World editor in the top left corner.

At one stage in 2006 he even sent an email to a News of the World journalist pleading ''overload, no more please'' – this was the year he hacked three phones to try to get the inside running on former Beatle Paul McCartney's divorce.

His hack of the voicemail of murdered teenager Milly Dowler in 2002 was ''central to the case'', Judge Saunders said: ''Give it close attention.'' The paper whirled into frantic action in response to the voicemails it found on her phone.

At the time Coulson was editing the paper, Brooks was on holiday in Dubai (but keeping in touch with Coulson by phone) and Kuttner, as managing director, got involved as well.

Judge Saunders said Mulcaire's hacking may have led to messages on Dowler's voicemail being erased (a claim originally made by The Guardian newspaper, then withdrawn, but only after it turned the phone hacking scandal from a deniable smoulder into an inferno that killed the News of the World).

Mulcaire had written on his Dowler notes: ''do both mobiles.''

The jury will have to decide what to make of the similarity between this phrase, and Coulson's instruction in an email to ''do his phone''.

They will also have to closely examine the relationship between Coulson and Brooks, and Mulcaire and the newspaper that employed him – and its executives in particular. Was it beyond doubt that they knew how he was getting these nuggets of news gold? When he negotiated a £100,000-a-year contract, was it conceivable that no one senior approved it?

Brooks and Coulson had told the court they generally did not ask their reporters to reveal their sources.

Judge Saunders told the jury the key to the conspiracy case against Rebekah Brooks was her ''state of knowledge''. To be found guilty she had to not only know about phone hacking but at some stage given the go-ahead.

She had claimed to not even be aware of phone hacking, and the jury might decide that was a lie, but ''just because someone lies does not make them guilty'', he said.

The jury must also decide what to make of the attempted cover-up at News International, which implicated both Brooks, Hanna and Carter, and featured the hilarious text exchange between NI security team members: "Broadsword calling Danny Boy, the pizza has been delivered and the chicken is in the pot."

Just before the jury retired, a jury bailiff – a court official whose job is to look after them – was sworn in.

Journalist Peter Jukes, who has live-tweeted the entire trial, said it was a ''goosebump moment'' for him. He felt exhausted, though he bets the judge and the jury feel even worse.